How to become increasingly selfish about your personal space
It is an inevitable fact of life that if you
don’t downsize when the children leave home, it will be common knowledge that you
have a surplus of bedrooms and maybe the odd bathroom. Result:
you become a sure target for the house guest.
In recent months, we have had what seems like an
endless stream of house guests from various parts of the country and the world. Some were invited, others invited themselves, and we
never refuse.
There was a time when I loved having house guests. Oddly enough (or perhaps not so odd), this was
especially the case when all the children were at home and we had to squeeze our guests in
where we could.
Being hospitable and gregarious (my husband a willing
accomplice), we would invite people we hardly knew to come and stay. Sometimes the visits would be short, maybe a couple
of nights, but on occasion we’ve had guests staying for two or three weeks. And thoroughly enjoyed it.
It doesn’t seem to work like that any more, and
when I’ve mentioned this to other people, I discover that I am not alone. ‘I get increasingly selfish about my personal
space,’ said a friend, who like us has quite a bit of surplus personal space in his
house. (He actually complimented me on what he
saw as my saintly self-sacrifice, and the awful thing was that I rather agreed with him.)
I’ve been puzzling as to why…
1. Age: it gets more tiring having to cater for guests as
one gets older
2. Used to peace and quiet and undisturbed environment,
now that the children have left home
3. Routine more fragmented and therefore more easily
interrupted than when one worked full time
4. At home more during the day, so have to entertain
guests more
5. In other
words, one is in danger, with age, of becoming a CONTROL
FREAK.
My first instinct, having come to this horrendous conclusion, is to
resist it with all my might. On reflection,
however, I think I’ll just give in.
Which would you rather be – a saint or a control freak? Do let me know…
helen@laterlife.com
Talkback is a regular
feature in laterlife.com run by journalist and author Helen Franks. 
